


About Us

by blod_reina



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Drama, M/M, Military Homophobia, Romance, Songfic, TW:Homophobia, Xiuyeol - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:22:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29771985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blod_reina/pseuds/blod_reina
Summary: Park Chanyeol met Kim Minseok while crying in the bathroom of a military boarding school, where he had been sent after his parents found out about his sexuality. Kim's entire family was made up of military personnel and "respectable" professions, his last name was well-known, so Minseok had become accustomed to living a double life.  It didn't take long for the meetings between the two, intended to teach Yeol how to live amidst that world of rigid and conservative rules, to take other directions. The kisses shared when no one was looking and the innocent touches on the sly were what gave them both strength, but how far could they keep the secret?[tw:homophobia]
Relationships: Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	About Us

**Author's Note:**

>   
> I'm back with a magnificent plot donated again by exolxprompts - on twitter - which you can check in the endnotes link. This one was made through a dynamic, for that reason it is based on the song They Don't Know About Us by One Direction. I have already commented before, but I will say again that this project is magnificent, I am always inspired by the plots I find there! I hope you enjoy this almost angst, it's the first time I'm risking writing in English.

**  
Single Chapter  
They don't know**

I remember the first time we kissed, hiding in an abandoned room in that hellhole. I was so nervous that my legs were shaking, I had only done it once before, quickly and clumsily, which resulted in my being sentenced to live in the boarding school. But Minseok seemed to know what he was doing, the way his firm arms brought us together gave me goose bumps, even though he was so much shorter than me. I knew that he was always in command of those actions. The feeling didn't diminish in our other secret nocturnal encounters, he always left me full of a jolt I didn't even know I could feel. 

"You shouldn't cry like that", he said in a serious tone when we first met. I couldn't see his face, as I was locked in the men's room, but soon I could see the owner of the voice, who appeared over the structure, startling me, causing me to swallow my tears and dry them quickly. His expression was gentle, completely different from the tone he had used. His duality between seriousness and gentleness had always dismayed me. "At least not here where they can get on your nerves." 

After that, things got better for me, even though I was stuck in a military boarding school for the simple fact that I liked boys. My parents were conservative, they did not accept this at all, they believed that the place would "fix" me, as if I were some kind of broken object. There were strict rules and the prejudice that surrounded the space was evident, the local authorities knew why I was enrolled there, my parents made sure to explain. I cried every day during the first week, I felt more alone than ever, but Kim made things much more tolerable. He was a little older than me, but we were in the same class, I skipped a school year when I was younger because my parents thought I was too advanced for what I was learning. This was true, but only because I was home-schooled. I thought it was an unnecessary and arrogant exaggeration from my parents at the time, even though I was a child, but I was even grateful that now I could be in the same year as Minseok. He, and the landscape of the military college in the oldest cultural style in Korea, were the only things worth having there. 

Kim's entire family was made up of military men and "respectful" professions, he was used to living by etiquette and rules, he had created a "mask" to pretend that he accepted all this very well. He was even respected at school, due to the reputation of his last name, and he kept this alive to keep any headaches at bay. The teachers and coordinators praised him constantly. But with me he had been completely honest from the first moment, revealing the hatred he felt inside, he would not show this side to anyone else. He had taught me how to live in that universe of wrong disciplines and avoid problems for a whole year without others knowing. Until my newest problem became him, or my feelings for him. Of course, at first the meetings in the forgotten room were only for us to talk freely, to let off steam, and for Kim to teach me how to behave. However, Minseok's shrugging of shoulders, his graceful laugh, his hand on my knee as we talked randomly, awakened in me a desperate desire to try other, much more intimate things. I was afraid of losing him, but he knew why I had stopped at that boarding school and yet he hadn't moved away, so I reasoned that maybe he could remain my friend if I confessed and he didn't feel the same way. I had to tell him, I couldn't hold it in any longer, I've never been good at hiding things, it was already an unparalleled difficulty to keep the fact that we were friends a secret. So I told him, stammering and slurring my words, but I told him what was going through my mind when we were together. That's when he kissed me and kept kissing me every other night. Sometimes he even stole a kiss in random places when no one was there to see, which always brought shy, happy smiles from me. 

I discovered the lighter side of myself that hadn't been there for a long time, my cheerfulness and optimism resurfaced, even though it was so hard to pretend that we didn't have any stronger closeness most of the time. I always longed for the moment to hear the clicks of our mouths, to feel his warm body in my hands, his perfume in my nostrils, to hear his laughter and the gasps here and there when the caresses passed through more sensitive regions. 

"We should run away", I said impulsively on another night that we spent awake together, sitting on the floor of the room lit only by Kim's flashlight. 

He had the back against the wall, my head rested on his lap, and his fingers caressed my now dark, previously pastel pink hair in complete affront to my parents. Minseok laughed in the way that always made my heart race. 

"Have you lost your mind, Loey? Where would we go?"  
"Anywhere!" I changed my position and sat down facing him.  
"With what money?" 

Kim was very down-to-earth, although he also shared some impulsive moments with me. 

"I've waited all my life, Min- _ah_..." I called him with the affectionate suffix that was common in Korea, while I entwined his hand in mine. "Only to find a love that feels this right."

I hadn't spoken to him in that way yet, we knew that there was more than anything just carnal there, but we hadn't expressed our deepest feelings yet. His smile didn't show teeth, but it had all the tenderness in the universe. His well-drawn eyes stared at me as if I were the most precious thing in the world, and I probably was. He brought my hand to his lips to kiss it quickly. 

"It's ending, Loey. This is all ending, we're going to finish school and then we'll find a good excuse to disappear off the map. I can get a job in Seoul", I knew that the capital was far away from our hometowns, "I know some contacts there. If we run away now, our families won't leave us alone". 

I lowered my gaze to our hands that were now playing with each other. I knew that Minseok was right, he almost always was, but I wanted to shout to the world that he was by my side, that we were together, that I loved him. 

"I love you, Chanyeol", he said suddenly, and I stared at him with wide eyes, which caused him to let out an anasalized laugh. "And I bet they would be jealous of us if they knew everything we shared together."

I couldn't describe what he did to me, the combustion in my organs and the peace in my spirit. They could say that this was all because we were young, in my case about to turn eighteen, that we knew nothing about life, and that eternity was a utopia. Several of these statements could be true, but this didn't change the fact of how strong those feelings were. It was strange to have such a stable refuge in the midst of the chaos that seemed to have always pursued me, and yet I knew that we each had our own obligations to follow. I kissed his lips as if it were the last thing I could do in life. 

"I love you too", I whispered in his ear. 

Little did I know that this was really the last time I would be able to kiss him like that for a long time. On our other date, which was two nights after that one, one of the coordinators happened to open the door to the room that no one ever visited, while Kim and I were too close to come up with any excuse that would save us. Of course they expected it of me, but Minseok was the example of discipline they so admired, he was the Kim's son, it was unacceptable that he had "given in to homosexuality," so they said. For them, the boy had to suffer the consequences, or the news would spread and the authorities there would no longer be so respectable. Those were the worst hours of my life. The dark space, which was once a memory of love in my days, became the greatest repulsion to my mind after that night. The other superiors, all grown men full of ideas about what life should be like, were called in, and I watched, screaming, which didn't help much, as they gagged my mouth with a cloth, Minseok receiving severe physical punishment. Kim family would approve of their methods, there was no one to turn to about it. Minseok was punched and kicked all over his body, even grabbed by the neck before they dropped him to the floor that now seemed too cold with his blood splattered here and there. I was crying desperately, for I didn't know what else to do, I thought I would literally choke on my accumulated tears in my throat and nose, but I didn't care one bit about myself at that moment, I wanted them to stop, I wanted to get to him and protect him, to leave him alone. I tried several times to free myself from the men holding me, I almost succeeded in some, but they always held me again, even though I was as tall and big as I was, I lacked the training that those men had had for years and years. 

"I'm going to turn a blind eye this time and not let it get out", said the head director of the boarding school, as Kim lay on the floor. I couldn't even think amidst the hatred mixed with despair, but I knew that this was far from the correct concept of a blind eye. I thought I would lose my favorite person in the world right then and there, and the director was talking as if he had done nothing at all. "If you are seen around this kid again, you are out of this school, Kim Minseok. It will be an embarrassment to your family. Stay in your dormitory for the next few days." 

It was obvious that he wanted Kim in the dorm, the bruises would be the talk of the town. They would probably need to create an explanation, a rumor around the boarding school, before they would let them see him. As for me, I was dragged away, again trying to scream and go to Minseok. They locked me in a room that was more like a solitary confinement. While I was there, tired, unshowered, with my head resting on my bent knees, I thought that this was a prison and not a school. I was given food and water for what I believed was only once a day, I counted the time that way, and the confinement lasted for three days. Then I was released to return to my normal routine, except for the fact that I would be away from Minseok, they changed my classes so that I would not be in the same class as him. On the fifth day, after all this, I opened my locker in the hallway and a paper fell out, as if it had placed from the outside in. I looked around, but no one was watching me, they were so sure that the beating Kim had received was enough to scare him that they didn't even bother to put anyone on guard. They were wrong, for this was the first of many letters that I exchanged with Minseok, always careful when it came to leaving them in our lockers so as not to be suspicious. Sometimes we would change the location so that our secret would remain safe. The few moments we had for cell phones would not be enough for messages, and perhaps the more archaic method was less obvious, no one else exchanged letters at our age. 

_"I don't want to be so far away from you anymore, meet me at the lake at midnight._

 _M"_

This had been the briefest letter he had written me, more of a note, but the one that caused me the most nervousness. He signed all his letters with his initial and I found it funny, it always made me smile, but that day I could only feel tense. Curfew was at 10 pm and there was an inspection an hour later, then the rest of the night was free, we were used to it, because that's how we always sneaked away to spend the night together. My hands were shaking when I lifted my wristwatch and saw that it was already nine in the evening. I had received the note much earlier, but had managed to get a moment alone at just that time to read it. 

It had been two months since we had seen each other. I missed his smell, his gentle way of laughing or his sensual approach to kiss me. I wanted my hands on his waist again to bring him closer. To hear the "I love yous" that only we knew. It seemed that the longer we were kept apart, the stronger that bond became. All this lack moved me to risk sneaking out of the school on the less lit side to the trees, yet I had never felt so afraid in my life. I didn't want to see him get hurt again, I didn't know what those men were capable of, there were no second chances there. The lake was not so far away, but it was necessary to go into the trees of the surrounding forest. There was a correct trail, but I didn't want to go there for fear of being inspected. The area around the lake was very open, with the forest giving way to a clearing that was extremely beautiful when the moon was strong and illuminated, as it was that night. I saw Minseok's shadow in the distance and came closer. When he realized my presence, he didn't even wait any second for something to be said, he ran up and took me by the lips. My hands were running over his body, full of longing. 

"I missed you so much", I confessed, my eyes watering.  
"Me too, Chan." He stroked one side of my hair. 

**.**

We didn't see each other for another three months. Kim's parents found out a little later about what happened and it became even less likely for us to take risks, letters also had to be more rare. I was feeling irritated and I knew that Minseok was too. However, now it was finally graduation day at the military boarding school. Min had gotten a job in Seoul, as he had planned, although it was nothing that his parents would really approve of in terms of status. She had to fight with her parents about not wanting to go to college right after finishing high school, but eventually she overcame them, since now she would have her own way to support herself. I, on the other hand, managed to get into one of Seoul's colleges with a monthly scholarship and couldn't wait to tell Minseok. The plan was already to go to Seoul together, without anyone else knowing, but I still hadn't had a chance to tell him the news, no matter how hard he knew I was trying. We met for a few risky minutes while his family members were distracted at the graduation party, mine didn't even bother to show up. Kim's expression was beaming when I told him I had made it.

"Move in with me", he said suddenly, after a quick kiss.  
"What?" I asked, more out of perplexity, for I had understood well what he had said.  
"I'm getting an apartment, you don't have to live on campus." 

I had commented that I was waiting for an answer so that maybe I could also get a place on campus, so that the scholarship aid could be used for groceries in town and not for rent, since it was not very high. 

"You don't have to pay rent and we will split the rest of the bills."  
"But..." I was speechless. "I don't want to be a burden to you, Min- _ah_." 

He held my face with both hands, looking at me with those intense eyes. 

"You never will be. And when you get a job and earn a better income, you can help me more, no problem." 

I didn't have much time to argue, because we needed to get back before anyone got suspicious, but I was really afraid of getting heavy for him, but as Minseok himself had said before we said goodbye: _"what mattered was that we would be together"_. Things got easier now that we could finally communicate by cell phones. The farce continued for our families, as if we had never had any contact again. We agreed that we would meet directly in Seoul since we both still needed to rely on buses or subways as we were not old enough for a driver's license. Our meeting point was the bus station in the capital. I had returned to my parents' home in Ulsan after graduation, just to get things together. I didn't even say goodbye properly, because I wanted as much distance as possible. They no longer acted as they used to with me after they found out about my sexuality, and as much as it pained me, I could no longer hope for their love or understanding. I arrived in Seoul a week after Minseok, who decided to meet me at the city bus station. We hugged each other tightly. He was wearing a set of all black clothes and the wind had messed up his brown hair in a way that made my heart jump in my chest. 

"Are you supposed to look like a criminal who can't be recognized?" I joked, already loosening my broad smile. He chuckled lightly looking at himself, as if he hadn't noticed the whole dark look.  
"And we're not really fugitives?" He laughed, although there was a certain melancholy, but soon he cheered up again. "Are you ready for freedom?" 

I shook my head enthusiastically as he took one of my bags to help me carry. The trip had been long, but as I slung one arm over Minseok's shoulder and we smiled as we walked together, everything felt so right in a way it never had before. Maybe our families would never know about us, but we weren't really worried, we had everything we needed right there. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Click to see the donated plot](https://twitter.com/exolxprompts/status/1361336394795413507)  
> [Click to listen to the music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unTus4ukPB0)


End file.
